Have you done any live webinars before? ow was it? Was it interactive enough? Of did you just end up talking while your participants just listened from wherever they were in the world?

As a presenter, you can benefit a lot more from the webinars you host by making them interactive. How do you do this? Below are a few tips:

Sign in: Aside from letting your participants sign in on an online sheet, have them state how they are feeling about attending your webinar. This way, you get to have a feel of the vibe of your audience and you can then tailor-fit your presentation to the general vibe of the group.

Notification: You can let your participants know that you will be asking questions and randomly to answer a question. This will keep them on their toes.

Prizes: By giving prizes, you encourage meaningful participation from your audience. This can be a free eBook, a gift certificate or whatever you think will be good for the participants.

Isn’t it better when someone tells you “Let’s talk” rather than “I’m going to deliver a speech to you”. Which one will surely catch your interest? Isn’t it the former?

When a presentation is delivered like a conversation, your audience tends to get more interested and more engaged. They will feel like they are really with you rather than you there at the stage and the audience just sits there listening to you from a distance.

So how do can you transform your presentation into a conversation? Below are four (4) ways you can do this:

Language
When you talk to your audience, use the word “you”. use that more often than I so it emphasizes that your message pertains to them and not you. Also, avoid addressing them collectively. Avoid phrases like “Does anybody have any question?” or “You guys”. This puts distance between you and your audience and won’t make it seem like a conversation at all.

Eye contact
When you talk, try to look at a single person in the eye and do this for each person whenever you can. This will make each person in your audience feel like you are personally conversing with them.

Questions
Ask them good rhetorical questions or invite them to ask you one by asking “Do you have a question?” Then make sure to address their concern.

Pause
It’s good to pause once in a while to give time to your audience to absorb the important points you have raised. This will allow them to internalize the discussion and be ready for the next part of your conversation.

By doing these things, your presentation will feel more like a conversation. It would become more engaging and less threatening for your audience.

Integrity, like honestly, can seem like a rare commodity to come by. But it still does exist and when it does, it should be lauded and emulated. Standing by one’s principles brings so much more good things in one’s life, even in business.

Let’s make an example out of Ellen Finkelstein’s story about her dad especially her experience with a product she purchased but failed to inspire much integrity:

“…They included creating “fake” Google accounts, including making up a name and choosing a profile picture from the Internet. It recommended deleting cookies in your browser before changing from one account to another so that Google didn’t know you had multiple accounts.”

What happened after was that Ellen asked for a refund of that product.

In know that business is nothing when you don’t make money out of it. But that doesn’t mean that it’s okay to do shady business while you’re at it. It’ still good to be honest and to do what is right. You will soon reap its rewards and the rewards are going to be ten-fold.

For those of you who would like to master the art of public speaking, here are some amazing tips:

1. Connect with the audience before you speak – If you’re the type who’s afraid of facing huge crowds and imagining them in their underwear is not doing the trick for you, then perhaps you ought to try connecting with each of your audience before you speak. Getting to know them through small chitchat either individually or in smaller groups should help you see them as people who are in need of what you have to offer them. This way, you won’t be so overwhelmed by their presence once you go in front of all of them to do your speech or presentation.

2. Stand up straight and look sharp – By standing up straight and looking confident, you’re already way past half the battle.

3. Use gestures deliberately and make them count – You probably experienced talking with your hands doing all sorts of gestures. It can be distracting. You just need to control these movements and just use your hand gestures when you want to stress or make a point.

If you’re a seasoned speaker, and you are abut to give a talk at a summit of big convention, you must be able to stand out amidst all the other speakers are are also going to talk to the same audience. To help you stand out, there are questions you need to answer when you make your presentation. These questions are:

1. Who is my audience?

By knowing who your audience are, you would know what their stakes are, why they are attending the summit or convention and what they need from you. You can then tailor your speech to make it fit their needs.

2. What is my audience expecting from me?

By knowing what your audience expect from you, then you would be able to make theor experience of listening to you so much more meaningful.

3. What am I expecting from my audience? What are my desired outcomes?

Are you expecting them to buy from you? Are you expecting them to take action?

Would you like to use open shapes in your presentations? They look hand drawn, look interesting and could add spice to your PowerPoint presentations. However, they don’t come with PowerPoint, but with the use of Bézier Curve (Edit Points) feature, you can make this possible. It is not that well-known a feature because it’s not on the ribbon but you can do everything using the right-click menu.

Ellen Finkelstein actually shared a video on how this can be done.

She also enumerated a step-by-step process on how to create open shapes.